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SubscriptionsCategory: Democracy
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Government Challenged Over Massive Hike to Election Spending Limit Which is Set to Benefit Conservatives
The change means parties will now be allowed to spend over £30m in order to win a General Election
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A Crime to Promote Ideas that Offend Conservative Ministers? The Government’s Changing Definition of Extremism
The proposed change to the definition of extremism risks tipping society into a dystopian political space, argues Adeeb Ayton
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‘The Price of Democracy in the UK has Just Gone Up Massively: The Conservatives Once Again Set the Rules to Benefit Themselves’
Increasing the amount political parties can spend on general elections is another warning sign for British democracy
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Revealed: Britain’s Broken Election Laws Just Got Even Worse
The Government has made it even easier for dark money, foreign influence, and the proceeds of crime to bankroll British politics
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Democracy Experts Sound Alarm on Corruption Risk as Local Council Audits Collapse
With only a fraction of local government audits now completed on time and a significant decline in their quality, a fundamental pillar of devolution is under threat, leaving communities in the dark on their council finances, experts warn
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First Past the Post Voting System Barrier to Urgent Action on Climate Crisis, Major Environmental Groups Say
Climate-conscious voters are locked out by our ‘winner-takes-all’ electoral system, a new report finds
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‘A Closed Door to a Men’s Club’: Why Are There Twice as Many Men in the House of Commons as Women?
A new report finds that, leading up to the next general election, fewer than 35% of candidate selections so far are women
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Demand for Investigation into David Cameron’s Appointment as Foreign Secretary Given Lobbying and China Links
The new Foreign Secretary and peer was involved in one of the biggest lobbying scandals of recent years
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‘Lies, Damned Lies and Strategic Lies’
Ivor Gaber examines the technique of repeating untruths for a particular gain and how to counter it
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‘Stability and Strong Government? Not with this Merry-Go-Round’
If the UK’s First Past the Post electoral system can’t deliver its supposed advantages, why we are continuing with it?
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Workers Face the Sack if They Don’t Cross Their Own Picket Lines. What Kind of Country is This?
Strike-breaking is now mandatory.
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David Cameron’s Appointment to Cabinet ‘Another Reminder Why the House of Lords Must Go’
The disgraced former Prime Minister has been handed a seat in the Lords for life.
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Who Owns the Thames? Giant Party Boat OceanDiva is Frontline in Battle Over London’s River Amid Claims of ‘Zero Accountability’
The controversy over a £25m party boat speaks to a wider issue: who decides what happens around the Thames?
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Government Claims it ‘Takes Seriously Its Constitutional Role and Responsibility’ – As Another Report Raises Concerns About Britain’s Democracy
The United Kingdom Constitution Monitoring Group believes there is evidence of a desire by some politicians to wholly bypass democracy
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‘Sunak’s Government is Using a Moment of Crisis to Clamp Down on Dissent. We Can’t Let it Stand’
The Conservatives’ rhetoric and actions against the right to protest concern us all, writes Liberty’s interim director Akiko Hart.
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The Empathy Gap and a Politics of Extremes
Empathy – to be of any meaning – needs to be bolstered by a willingness to accept one’s failures, writes Iain Overton
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Time to Tackle ‘Dark Money’ in Politics – As Voters Demand Transparency Over Britain’s Opaque Think Tanks
We know very little about the funding for many of the UK’s leading think tanks – but a new report sheds some light
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What Can the UK Teach the World About AI Safety?
For all the PR of the AI Safety Summit, what is the UK Government actually doing to safeguard its citizens from the dangers of AI, data misuse and prejudicial algorithms?
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Conservative Think Tank Urges Sunak to Sabotage Labour Plans for Electoral and Political Reform
The opaquely-funded group has close links to the Prime Minister
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‘Letting Young Adults Vote is One of Labour’s Few Genuinely Radical Proposals’
The extension of the franchise could shift the character of British politics, writes Nicholas Reed Langen
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Reversing the Road to Unfreedom: The Polish Elections are Finally Some Good News for Democracy
Those in America looking for a way out of the toxic Trumpian cycle should look to Poland as a starting point
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Transparency Seems to Die a Death at the Government’s AI Summit
Why won’t the Government tell the public who’s attending – and who’s being left out in the cold?
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‘Farcical’: Disbelief as Disgraced Former Prime Minister Boris Johnson is Appointed as ‘Democracy Union’ Adviser
Johnson was found to have unlawfully suspended Parliament and lied to MPs.
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‘Scrap Voter ID to Save Cash’, Democracy Group Tells Jeremy Hunt Ahead of Autumn Statement
Mandatory voter ID rules are expected to cost the taxpayer £120m over the next decade.
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Keir Starmer ‘Waters Down’ Labour Commitment to Overhauling Unelected House of Lords
Only last December, Sir Keir backed plans for a “new second chamber” which would have “electoral legitimacy”.
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How Campaigners and Charities are being ‘Gagged by Government’ as Report Issues Stark Warning
From the Lobbying Act to condemnation of peaceful campaigners by Government figures, free speech has been thoroughly degraded, the authors argue
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‘Children of Men’ – 17 Years On: A Grave Warning to a Nation Adrift
The 2006 film set in a dystopian London of the future has much to say about modern Britain – especially the ‘doom loop’ trapping younger generations, writes Matt Gallagher
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Over 180 Rights Groups and Tech Experts Call for UK and Worldwide Halt to Facial Recognition Surveillance
The EU is implementing a blanket ban on facial recognition surveillance by police – but the UK is ploughing ahead despite privacy fears
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Voter ID, Big Party Bungs, and Payouts to Shamed MPs Would Be Scrapped Under Lib Dem Plans
The Liberal Democrats have set out proposals for overhauling UK democracy, our Chief Reporter writes from Bournemouth.
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‘Government Stonewalling on Transparency on Foreign Influence Undermines its Tough Rhetoric on Chinese Spying’
An approach to foreign influence that relies on identifying particular state threats risks shutting the stable door after the horse has bolted, writes Tom Griffin
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Government Rejects Call For Voters To Boot Out No-Show MPs Like Nadine Dorries
Nadine Dorries has prompted a debate over whether MPs should be forced to attend Parliament – rather than attend their lucrative TV gigs.
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Voter ID Made it Harder for Young, Poor and Ethnic Minorities to Vote, Official Study Finds
The study suggests that those groups less likely to vote Conservative were more likely to be turned away
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Westminster’s Two-Party ‘Duopoly’ Leaves Voters with ‘Little Choice’ and Lacking ‘Meaningful Voice’, Study Finds
Political distrust has often “been the first step in a sequence of autocratisation, resulting in the breakdown of democracy itself” the report notes.
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Press Watchdog Writes to Conservatives and Party Chairs Over ‘Misleading’ Fake Newspapers
The party is “misleading voters into believing what they are reading is the work of local journalists from independent publications”
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‘Rather than Blaming Capitalism, the Right Blames the Immigrant’
The significant gains made by the right across Europe in recent years haven’t appeared out of the blue, writes Simon Speakman Cordall
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‘Britain and the US: How the Oligarchies Posing as Democracies have Been Exposed’
Something even worse than government run by politicians is government run by politics, writes AC Grayling
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‘If Our Government Turns on its Own People, We Will Need the ECHR to Protect Us’
The European Court of Human Rights is there to safeguard us against our own worst impulses – calls to leave its jurisdiction are deeply troubling, writes Alexandra Hall Hall
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‘The Modern Conservative Party Holds the ‘Will of the People’ in Contempt’
In Rishi Sunak’s Conservatives, the ethos of public service is being replaced by self-service
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Rishi Sunak’s Many Failures to Fully Declare his Conflicts of Interests
The claim that the PM’s failure to declare his wife’s investment in a childcare company subsidised by his Government was ‘inadvertent’ is open to question
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Gambling Firms Hit With Huge Increase in Fines as Industry Splashes out on MPs
Gambling companies received 31,500% more in fines than in the same period a decade ago, Byline Times’ analysis reveals
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Revealed: The Scandal of the Fake Newspapers Pushed by Conservatives in ‘Dirty Tricks’ Campaign
The elections watchdog has said the fake newspapers from local Conservative parties appear to be within the rules
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‘Code of Conduct’ Review: A Brave and Important Work – With a Few Omissions
The proposals set out by Labour MP Chris Bryant to clean-up Parliament should be adopted by his party’s leader for its next manifesto, writes Peter Oborne
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The UK and US’ Turbulent Times: A Race to the Bottom
Former British diplomat Alexandra Hall Hall, who now lives in the US, explores which country has been on the bigger self-destruct mission
